Traditionally, control of quality of service (QoS) within telecommunications networks has been achieved using a combination of best-effort data delivery, network resources reservation, or data packet marking on data communication paths. However, the design of emerging next generation network (NGN) architectures (e.g., IMS, 3G, GSM, 3GPP, and Long Term Evolution (LTE)) will render this approach no longer viable. One feature of network topology within the various NGNs is that the signaling required to negotiate a data transfer (e.g., application signaling) may not travel on the same logical path as the actual data transfer itself (e.g., data traffic). Therefore, a policy entity is needed to link the application signaling on the service plane to data traffic on the transport plane in order to allow applications to request QoS to be performed on the traffic plane.
One example of such a policy entity is a policy and charging rules function (PCRF). PCRF evolved out of the 3GPP (third generation partnership product) specification as a component for IP Multimedia Subsystem networks (IMS). Today, PCRF is not exclusively tied to IMS networks but is applicable across many network types.
A policy and charging rules function (PCRF), or policy engine, at its most basic level, is a server that deploys a set of operator-created business rules in a communications network. These rules can be used to define how broadband network resources should be allocated to subscribers and applications and under what conditions. The PCRF is a policy decision point that may be centrally located in the network and communicates with access edge devices (e.g., policy enforcement points), applications, and operational support systems/business support systems (OSS/BSS) platforms to manage subscriber and network information according to the established rules. Policy rules encompass the business and technological rules that govern which network services a subscriber can access, at what bandwidth level, when, and for how long. Generally speaking, the PCRF queries, coordinates, and adjusts all of the network resources needed to provide the required services to individual, authorized subscribers. As such, the PCRF operates solely in the control plane and does not operate in the data plane. More specifically, the PCRF identifies appropriate policy rules by querying a subscription profile repository (SPR) and enforces them by sending them to, for example, a policy and charging enforcement function (PCEF).
One drawback to current PCEF operation is that policy is only defined on an individual, per-subscriber basis. For example, when a PCRF requests subscription information from a subscription profile repository (SPR) in order to determine a policy to be applied, the query returns data for a single subscriber. Currently no mechanism exists for defining and/or querying subscription profile information for groups of subscribers. As a result, in situations where many subscribers may share the same or similar profile information and, therefore, the same or similar policy rules, a high amount of network resources are required to individually store, obtain, and implement policies for groups of subscribers.
Accordingly, in light of these difficulties, a need exists for improved methods, systems, and computer readable media for leveraging existing mechanisms to provide group policy configuration in communications networks.